Before Heroes‘ second series began on NBC on Monday, the missus and I had a conversation. How long, we wondered, would we stick with the show if it suddenly turned awful? That’s the kind of thing we talk about, I’m afraid. Three episodes, we decided – it had earned that much leeway by dint of the first season being pretty much the most exciting thing on TV in years.

Monday’s opener – which we got round to watching last night – was terribly disappointing. Not inept, not awful, just oh-so dreary. I won’t go into lots of detail and spoil things for viewers still following the first run on BBC2, suffice to say characters were planted into new(ish) situations, but already it’s clear that – just as Jack Bauer would be back working for CTU by 20 minutes past the hour – the new lives adopted by certain individuals are quickly unraveling as the old order pushes its way through. And that’s a bit boring.

Although that’s not the case with Hiro, whose storyline chronologically, physically and figuratively finds him far removed from everyone else, pursuing his own plot bubble. I’m guessing his actions will eventually have some impact on the show’s main thread, but right now it’s hard to care about what’s happening to him.

Oh, and some of the British accents on show are very odd indeed.

I won’t go on. When a good show turns in a disappointing episode, it’s too tempting to bang on about it forever. I’ll be watching next week and I’ll still be hopeful. Hopeful the unusual, offbeat, pretentious drama I enjoyed earlier in the year will find its feet once more. It’s got two episodes to play with…

Anyway, if you’ve watched the Heroes season two opener, please do leave a comment and let me know what you thought. And, let’s not worry about spoilers for British viewers there either. They can choose not to click…